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Welcome to the Laptop Sessions music video blog! Here, you'll find cover songs, original music, & music reviews updated every weekday! We hope you enjoy the acoustic covers, free mp3s, chords, tabs, and music reviews here on the site!

Category Archives: Ben Folds Five Songs

Ben Folds Five covers: Acoustic cover songs – music videos by the songwriters of the Laptop Sessions video blog. Daily music blog with new indie rock acoustic songs.

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The BEST PACKAGING of 2012

For this year, I’ll reserve my perennial rant on the decay of the album as an art form and the loss that is represented by the turn to digital delivery of music. Instead, I’ll take this opportunity to point out three special albums this year that embraced the possibilities that are available for expanding the vision of the album to a more total view, including the physical representation of the themes and images of the music and lyrics. The highlight of the year was Fiona Apple’s The Idler Wheel…, which presents drawings and handwritten lyrics which give the sense of flipping through a writer’s notebook. Go Fly A Kite can be fitted into place as a 3-D diorama, which is unique at the very least, not to mention that the lyrics include chords. Finally, The Sound of the Life of the Mind is brilliantly designed, but for the fact that far too much space is taken up by names of fans who bought into the project as sponsors, particularly considering that there are no lyrics in the CD version, which is a shame based on how artful they are.

The BEST ALBUM COVERS of 2012

Even in an age of increasingly digital delivery of music media, album covers continue to be an integral piece of the vision for an album. In a sense, they are rapidly becoming the primary, if not sole, physical/visual component of the album. That being said, it also feels like, in many cases, album covers have fallen to the wayside as hastily composed and inspired out of necessity. Nevertheless, there are always some that stand out of the crowd; this year, there are five that deserve to be honored.

The following artists are being recognized for their notable collaborations. Had they not worked together, their tracks and, in some cases, albums would not have been nearly as successfully rendered. Wanda Jackson and Jack White have to earn the top mention for the comeback release of the year. Jackson was once a hitmaker, a notable player in the rockabilly scene (dating Elvis Presley for a time), but I certainly hadn’t heard of her before this year. With White’s electric leads and the fitting arrangements that walk the line between classic and modern, The Party Ain’t Over makes good on the claim in its title.

Beyond this collaboration, the others on this list are more traditional. 8in8 was a cool idea: get together to write, record, and release eight tracks in eight hours as a way of showing just how much the music industry has changed in even the past several years. Gillian Welch’s role, dueting on the Decemberists’ The King is Dead, was a vital one, just as Norah Jones and Jack White added their vocals to a couple tracks and elevated the Rome soundtrack. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out and praise the (brief) reunion of Ben Folds Five, just as much as if I didn’t note that some of the tracks on The King is Dead have a strongly R.E.M.-esque vibe to them at least in part because Peter Buck is playing on them.

1) Wanda Jackson and Jack White (The Party Ain’t Over)

2) Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, and Damian Kulash (8in8)

3) The Decemberists and Gillian Welch (various tracks on The King is Dead)

My 2nd installment for fusco-moore.com’s “Laptop Sessions”. This time we’ll get a bit more obscure.

This song is from Ben Folds Five, and was a song that was intended for their album “Whatever and Ever Amen” – a great album – but Ben Folds decided to not put this song on because it had guitar, and would take away from the piano-rock theme they were trying to promote.

This is such a great song, and I love hearing it at his shows. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up. We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session. We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future. But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

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Ben Folds Five Acoustic Rock Cover Songs and Free mp3 Downloads

Ben Folds Five is the ironically named indie music trio that hit the air waves with their 1997 single, “Brick.” A hit song on the modern rock charts, this band developed a fiercely loyal following among the college crowd. Ben Folds Five made a name for itself by shunning electric and acoustic guitar music, instead opting to base their sound around the piano. They somehow managed to rock and roll like no other piano-based band had before, writing and recording new rock music that was upbeat, full, and composed with fun and intelligent lyrics. When Ben Folds eventually embarked on his own career, he toured as a solo performer, just him and a piano – an unplugged presentation of sorts, and found receptive crowds who knew every word of every song by heart. The three songwriters of the Laptop Sessions are all avid fans of Ben Folds Five, and although the band does not technically have any acoustic music to be transformed into cover songs, there have been several sessions devoted to songs such as “Emaline” and “Smoke” and more music video blog entries are on their way.

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